(#Infomagical) Day 5: One Priority

17Jun

Yesterday’s Infomagical challenge was to have a conversation at least seven minutes long with someone about a topic important to you, either over the phone or in person. So…how was it? Was it harder than you thought it would be? Easier? What did you talk about? And did you learn anything from the conversation?

I had planned to chat with my husband about his Dresden Files tabletop role-playing game yesterday, but we ended up talking about Warcraft with my husband and my best friend after seeing the movie. They were both not fans, to put it mildly. Which put me in the position of being the film’s sole defender — and even on a good night’s sleep with a bit of hindsight I have to say that it’s not as bad as everyone has been saying. I think Duncan Jones worked hard to ground an inherently cartoonish world and mostly succeeded; it wasn’t perfect, it might not even be good, but I liked it anyway. If you’ve ever had a long period where you were a die-hard Warcraft fan, you should see this movie on the big screen. It is made for you, to put yourself as immersively as possible in the world of Azeroth.

One of the things I came away from the conversation with is the idea that disagreement doesn’t have to be a personal attack. Even though I think a lot of the criticisms that have been lobbed at the movie (yes, even from my husband and best friend) are a bit unfair, I see where they’re coming from. And hey, just because I like — or even love — something doesn’t mean I can’t at least recognize its flaws, or the points where it leaves people cold, right? So yeah, good talk guys. I can’t wait to talk movies with you again sometime.

Today is the last day of our Infomagical week. If you joined me for these last five days of challenges, thanks! I hope that you’ve learned a bit more about how you interact with technology and where your relationship with it can improve. If you’ve just been reading these posts, thanks to you too! I hope you’ve gained something from reading about my experience. Or at least found it interesting.

The challenge for today is to take what we’ve learned about ourselves, how we consume information and that feeling we get when we’re chasing our goal and wrap it all up in one wonderful burrito of purpose. (I really want a burrito for lunch, you guys.) Today, we think about the lessons we’ve learned this past week and figure out how to apply it to the rest of our lives moving forward. What is the one big thing that we want to change in our lives as the result of this experience?

For me, the big lesson is the value of focus and prioritization. I have this tendency to say “yes” to way too much stuff, and even discounting the chronic depression, ADHD and poor time management skills there’s simply no way I’ll be able to get to everything in a timely fashion. Focusing squarely on single-tasking Monday gave me a window into a world in which I sit down with one project until it is finished, working hard on a single thing to make it the best thing it can be. That felt good! I want more of that in my life.

So, from now on, I’m going to shrink my focus down to the most important things to me. If there isn’t time for other things that are distractions anyway, so be it. I’ll read less Cracked articles, or spend less time on Facebook. I’ll stop reading articles on professional wrestling. (Well, maybe not, but I’ll read fewer of them.) What I do with my time and my technology will hopefully push me towards becoming a better and more complete storyteller, someone who knows the value and transformative potential of stories, someone who uses them for a very real and tangible benefit.

The Infomagical podcast for today is definitely worth a listen if you have about 15 minutes; it talks about the value of priority in your life and the cold reality that you must make conscious, difficult choices about where you choose to spend your time and energy. Tech, it’s mentioned at one point, makes a wonderful servant but a poor master.

So if you’re bouncing from Facebook to Twitter to blog to blog to blog — stop. That’s allowing yourself to be mastered by technology. Instead, make a conscious choice when you sit down at the computer, or take out your phone. Every moment brings a new choice; what is the best one to make? That’s something only you can decide, and if you want your tech to be a tool instead of a tyrant, it’s worth it to spend some time thinking about your decision.

Here’s the full list of blog posts and Infomagical challenges this week. I’m not sure if the page will be up next Monday, but if it is you can sign up to take the challenge here. Thanks so much for following me on this experience.